UPS RACING

Hello from Texas!

We got out here early on Thursday since the Nationwide Series had tech at the track. We all fly together, so all of the Cup guys had the day off on in Texas to have some fun. Some of us did have to work as David had two sponsor appearances on Thursday, but it looks like some of the No. 6 team hit the golf course. I’m not sure what the rest were up to, but the weather was beautiful for the first day of the race weekend.

Last week we were in Talladega, Alabama. That was such a stressful weekend because things happen so fast there and you never know who is going to get caught up in a wreck.  We survived right up until the end when David got bumped and took a trip through the grass. We still finished okay and actually moved up a spot in the point standings. 

We also got to have a little fun in Talladega. I’m not sure if you’ve heard stories about the infield there, but it’s crazy. The wildest fans go to Talladega and camp out for the whole week! A lot of the crew guys make an annual trip to ‘cruise the infield’ to see what’s going on inside of the largest tracks on the schedule. The Zac Brown Band played a free concert to anyone with an infield pass on Saturday night before the race. Of course it had rained all day Saturday, but it stopped by late afternoon. Event though the weather cleared, it was definitely a muddy mess. The concert was really good and David even stopped by for the start of it. He left early since he had to get up and race the next day. 

Now back to Texas. We’ve got a really cool car this weekend and everyone is excited to see it on track. We’ve gotten to visit some Boys and Girls Clubs of America locations this year on behalf of UPS, and those visits are always a lot of fun. Our paint scheme this weekend is cool with a lot of the BGCA kids’ handprints on the car. I even tried to match up my hands with theirs on the car, and I actually fit a few. I’m not sure if they’ve got some growing into their hands to do or if my hands are just small!

Well, that’s about it from here for now. Hopefully we get a good run this weekend to make up for last time. David had such a good run going in the spring, but debris got caught on the grill and overheated our car…bad luck. Here’s hoping it’s all behind us!

- Nancy

Another cold and rainy weekend in Charlotte is behind us and we’re off to Martinsville this week. It always seems to rain wherever the race is, and this past weekend was no exception. We had rain on Thursday (qualifying day), which made for a long day, but we were able to get everything in. For the race on Saturday night, it was cold standing out on pit road, but we all had on lots of layers and even got some hot chocolate halfway through the race from our hauler driver Bill!

David had a good car until a tire going down hurt our track position, but ultimately, he ended on the lead lap in 20^th. This weekend is Martinsville, which is another race close to home. That is something that we always enjoy. Plus, it’s a short track, and David likes short tracks. Hopefully the weather will be warmer and we’ll get a good finish!

On Tuesday, David filmed an episode for CMT ‘Cribs.’ It’s funny how 5-7 minutes of what you see on the air takes about 10 hours to shoot. David wasn’t on camera that whole time, but he did take them on a tour of his house and his race shop. Once he was done, I stuck around with Alexis while the production crew took a lot of b-roll shots. It made for a pretty long day. I think it will all turn out really good and everyone will have to check it out in January when it airs. We don’t know what day it’s going to air yet, but we’ll keep you up to date when we find out.

Having 10 hours of filming creates some down time, so we had a little fun while waiting at David’s shop……check out some of our photos!

Well, things haven’t slowed down much since last time you guys heard from me. Before we went out to Kansas, David and I drove to Greenville, S.C. for a UPS appearance at a call center on Wednesday. Then on Thursday, we stopped in Wisconsin on our way out to Kansas for another UPS event. Both visits were fun and we were able to meet a bunch of UPS employees in Greenville and UPS customers in Wisconsin. We were in Kohler, Wisconsin for the one visit, and it’s the same place they make all the faucets, sinks and other stuff. It’s a cool little village area, and somewhere I would have never thought of visiting.

In Kansas, we had our good-looking silver UPS Freight Ford on the track, but of course, we had bad luck again. We were good in practice and started picking up spots on the track during the race, but the car ahead of us spun out and we got caught up in it and had to come to pit road for repairs. We had more damage then the car that spun…figures. Oh well, we’ll have to go and get a good finish in California now.

Nancy and Alexis in Los Angeles. David is the cameraman

We actually flew out to California a day early on Wednesday for a UPS Road Code event in downtown Los Angeles. There were a lot of kids in attendance at the Boys and Girls Club, and they really listened to what David had to say about safe driving and asked lots of really good questions. Some of the kids even made cards for David.

Since we don’t get to come out to L.A. too much, we opted to stay at a hotel in downtown on Wednesday night. It was very different from anywhere I’ve ever stayed. Someone referred to it as ‘trendy’ and that is a pretty good description of the place. Check out the photo of Alexis and I waiting on the big chair/couch in the lobby while we waited for David so we could all go to dinner. In case you don’t know Alexis, she’s the one who keeps everything updated on this site and keeps everyone informed through the UPS Twitter feed, among other things, but those are the times you’ve probably heard from her.

Since we were already out west on Thursday, we had some time to play and Alexis and I took a trip to Universal Studios. David had a Discount Tire appearance, so he couldn’t come hang out with us. The weather was perfect and there were hardly any lines, so we pretty much got on everything we wanted. Now it’s back to reality and we’re all back out at the track. Looks like we’ve got a fast UPS Ford, so hopefully we can turn around the bad luck and get a good finish!

We took a tour of the studio's lots and checked out some rides

Jessica and Nancy at Fenway Park!

Nancy Padula is the Account Manager for the No. 6 team at Roush Fenway Racing

I can’t believe September is coming to an end and it’s almost already October. Things have been pretty good around here. Last week we were in New Hampshire for the race and got to do some fun things. David and I went to LL Bean in Freeport, Maine for a company picnic on behalf of UPS. I didn’t get to see much of LL Bean, but I’ve heard great things about it and the people we met there were so nice. Maybe next year we’ll get to go on a tour and try out some of the activities there.

Roush Fenway Drivers - check out the legs under the sign

Thursday evening we all went to the Red Sox game. It was Roush Fenway night and all the members of the Cup and Truck teams went. David, Jamie and Colin Braun were the only Roush drivers that were able to make it to the game. Colin is our Truck series driver and he threw out the first pitch….with a little taunting from the sidelines! Check out the picture of the big Roush Fenway banner, sadly it’s the last year it can be used since we’ve got to go down to four Cup teams next year. Did you notice the legs at the bottom of the banner? That’s the truck team waiting to roll it back up and carry it away! They looked pretty funny standing behind it! If you checked out David’s blog last week we filmed it from down on the field before the game.

At the track in Loudon we kind of struggled through practice and qualifying, but when it came time to race it seemed as if things turned around. David gained 10 spots on the first lap and the team made some adjustments that really seemed to improve the handling on his UPS Ford. Unfortunately Kurt Busch tapped David in the left-rear on a pit stop, causing David to spin around backwards into his pit stall. I had flashbacks to Watkins Glen when Dwayne got hit, so I was glad to see everyone avoided the spinning car and finished the stop safely. Too bad we had to take it to the garage for repairs, but that’s how racing goes sometimes.

This week David has been down in Daytona for a Goodyear tire test. I heard they’ve had some rain, so I’m glad I’m not there. Rain at the race track is never a good thing. We’re all off to Dover this weekend. Hopefully we can get things turned around and get a good finish. It’s been a long season for all of us when you know you are much better than where you are finishing. We’ve got a few races left to turn it all around and a 2010 season to look forward to.

Talk to you all soon!

-Nancy

A view from the Green Monster at Fenway Park

Nancy at Roush Fenway Racing

We are off to Richmond this weekend. It’s the final weekend to see who makes the Chase, unfortunately we’re on the outside looking in, but we wish the best of luck to our Roush Fenway teammates and hope the No. 99, No. 17 and No. 16 make the Chase. Last year we almost made the Chase, it came down to Richmond and we were sitting 13^th, but didn’t quite do well enough in the race to clinch a spot. At least Richmond is a good track for David, so we should have a pretty good showing. Last weekend in his hometown of Atlanta we had a decent UPS Ford, but two speeding penalties hurt our chances at a good finish. So everyone is ready to rebound this weekend.

As far as off-track stuff goes, I’ve been busy scheduling out sponsor appearances. We’ve got a bunch of stuff coming up and David has a few tests coming up as well. I actually ordered his 2010 firesuit this week. Crazy to think I had to do that already, but we’ve got our first photo shoot next month for Coke and need the new suit. David’s suits are from a company called Sabelt and they are located over in Italy. I like to give extra time for it to get produced and cleared through customs to get over here to me.

I saw Pedro this week! We were over at David’s shop filming a segment for Ford on their new 2010 Taurus. It’s a nice car and Pedro was welcoming and made his ‘donkey noise’ for the visitors to hear. He’s darkened up over the summer; I’ll have to take an updated photo to share with everyone before fall comes and he starts getting a thick winter coat.

That’s all for now!

-Nancy

Another off-weekend for the Cup Series! It’s nice, but seems like our off weekends are too close together. I think that they need to be spread out a little more. But, we’re on the home stretch now and there’s only 12 races left this season. Each year the season goes by faster and faster!

Things have been pretty normal back at the shop. David had a great run at Bristol in the Nationwide car and got his second victory of the season and followed it up with a 14^th-place finish in the Cup car. Overall it was a good weekend that hopefully kick-started some good luck for the rest of the year. Things haven’t exactly gone our way, but we’re all hoping that changes, especially heading to Atlanta next weekend.

Atlanta is home to David Ragan and UPS so we really want to get a good finish there. It’s also a big weekend for one of our other sponsors, Coca-Cola. Coke does a cool promotion each year where they have all their Coke Family drivers at the track with the Richard Petty Driving Experience. The Coke-sponsored drivers take contest winners around Atlanta Motor Speedway in two-seater cars. It’s pretty cool and last year I hopped in and rode with David around the track; it definitely gives you a different perspective of what he does every week. We’ll see what happens this year, I might do it again!

Well, I’m off to enjoy my last off-weekend of the season. Enjoy your weekend as well!

And one more important thing. Happy Founder’s Day UPS’ers! 102 years as a company is awesome and everyone at Roush Fenway loves working with all of you!

Having some time off at home was nice, but now things are back to normal. David and the UPS team have had a busy few weeks. Since Pocono got rained out, they had to drive straight from the track to Dover for a two-day tire test. After two more days at the track, they flew home Wednesday night and then headed to Watkins Glen Thursday afternoon. Lucky for me, I got to miss that trip. But, I did get stuck in the rain at both Pocono and Watkins Glen. Figures we would rain out two weekends in a row.

Remember in my last blog when I mentioned the Pocono golf tournament? Well my team (consisting of Richie, Sean, Steve and myself) came in fourth…I think. We finished somewhere around the front of the pack and there were about 24 teams. David’s team came in second, but he brought in ringers. Last year he competed in a long drive competition on the SPEED Channel. There were multiple events throughout the season and each driver was paired with a long drive guy. Well, David called up his partner from last year, who also brought his club pro friend down to play. They made the short trip from New Jersey to Pocono and played with David and Nick. The course pretty was hard and I’m not sure what team won, but they must have been pretty good.

Did anyone watch the Watkins Glen race? Dwayne, our rear-tire changer, got hit on our first pit stop. The No. 42 was pitted behind us and hit him as he was pulling out of his pit stall. Dwayne went down pretty hard, but got himself right back up and finished the stop. Afterwards, he went to the care center to get checked out. All is good now, he’s got some stitches in his elbow and is sore, but doing well. He’ll be back at it this weekend in Michigan!

Speaking of Michigan….it’s always a busy one. Michigan is Jack’s hometown track and Ford is located there as well. There will be lots of people at the track this weekend and it’s a place Roush has historically run well at. Maybe it will be our turn to get a win!

-Nancy

Well we’re sitting here in Pocono and the radar doesn’t look so good. Looks like we’re about to get hit with rain, which is no shocker being in Pocono; it always rains here. It’s okay if it rains, as long as it doesn’t rain Sunday! It’s been a long week! David and I flew to New Jersey Wednesday to visit the UPS technology center up there. It was fun, the people up there are awesome, but the weather didn’t want to let us get home. Here’s our trip back….

On our way back to Newark airport we found out our flight had been cancelled, so I called US Air (while sitting in traffic) and the best they could do for us was a flight out Thursday morning. I asked about Lagaurdia and they had a 9:40PM that was already delayed to 10:10PM. I put us on that and called Continental. Continental had a flight leaving at 8:30PM from Newark to Charlotte. I booked that for us, we got to the airport, checked in, went through security, got to our gate and then found out that flight got cancelled. They could only get us out Thursday morning so we had them switch us to that flight. David and I wound up getting a cab from Newark to Lagaurdia to try our luck at the delayed 9:40PM flight. Keep in mind, its down pouring and lightning all around. An hour later we arrive in Laguardia, check into our flight (get some ice cream, we’ve earned it by this time!) and begin to wait. We filmed David’s blog on our way to the gate (people were looking at us funny), be sure to check it out! From there we sat down at the gate through ground stops for the weather, gate changes and multiple delays of our flight. Luckily it didn’t get cancelled and we finally got on the plane around midnight and got back to Charlotte at 2AM. Once we landed back in Charlotte, I had to call and cancel our Continental flight, what a day! All this seems silly since in New Jersey we were so close we could have gone straight to Pocono, but we both wanted time at home Thursday before the team plane flew out. 

Last night me, David and some of the guys on the team went to a cookout at our old spotters house. It was fun just to hang out for a little bit, but I was sleepy from our Wednesday and Thursday adventure, so I called it an early night.

One thing that we always look forward to when we come to Pocono for the second time each season is the NASCAR Official’s charity golf tournament. I’m playing with Richie, Studer and Steve from the team. I haven’t played since February, so I’m hoping it won’t take too long to get my swing back.

Next week the team is heading to Dover, Delaware, Tuesday and Wednesday for a Goodyear Tire test and then to Watkins Glen Thursday, luckily I don’t have to go to tire tests. I’m heading home to upstate NY for the week to spend some time at home before Watkins Glen. 

I hope everyone has better luck flying than we do!  Talk to you soon!

Yay for an off-weekend! It’s a much needed break in our never-ending travel schedule.
It’s kind of like a college town around here. It seems like most people aren’t from here and any time we get time off everyone heads home to visit family, or plans a vacation. I’m one of them! I’m heading back to NY to see everyone this weekend. David on the other hand is racing…big surprise. The last two years he’s run full-time Nationwide and Cup schedules and hasn’t had a weekend off. This year he gets a weekend off and heads home to race for fun. I guess at least he’s back home and gets to relax a little.

Last week we were in Chicago. We flew in Wednesday morning and had a Road Code appearance at the Boys & Girls Club in downtown Chicago. It’s a cool place and everyone was excited to have David there. From there we drove to Joliet (where the track is) for a Discount Tire store appearance. Actually we sat in traffic the whole way, I wouldn’t have figured traffic would be back at 3:00 PM on a Wednesday afternoon in Chicago, but it was. Lesson learned…..

Me and Casey the Cricket at Worldport!

This past Tuesday, we went to Worldport Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. You can see David’s blogs and photos on the website. It was really cool, but I can’t remember the last time I stayed up all night. Luckily they had cookies and snacks for us so that helped. We also took fun pictures with the UPS safety mascot! There is so much that goes on there; it was very interesting to see it all first hand.

We took the first flight back to Charlotte Wednesday morning and landed at 8:00 AM. I got home and slept a few hours. David is a trooper and stayed up and then drove to Atlanta. He had an event at Six Flags on Thursday for Atlanta Motor Speedway. There is a new rollercoaster there called Goliath. So the event was ‘David vs. Goliath’ and he rode it with some fans and then hung out with his friends the rest of the day at the park. See, he gets to have a little fun now and then.

That’s all I’ve got for now, enjoy your weekend!

Nancy and the baby goat

New Hampshire is behind us and we’re in Daytona this weekend. It’s going to be hot! But at least Daytona is a fun race. We stay at the beach and with it being a night race and things starting later in the day, we actually have mornings to enjoy some beach time. Last year we saw dolphins swim by; hopefully they’ll be back this year.

Off the track things have still been busy around here. I made David swing by the office and sign some things this week. Remember how he was on QVC a few weeks ago? Well the cars he sold on-air were autographed UPS Freight die-cast cars. These cars are still being made and won’t be done until the fall. So they sent us the windshields and he signed those this week and then we sent them back so they can put them on the cars. It’s much easier signing the windshields than a couple hundred cars. It’s especially easier for me since I would be the one to open all the boxes and put them back together… needless to say, I’m a fan of the windshield idea.

Everyone with mom

The UPS team is going to be looking good this weekend. I delivered their brand new uniforms (same design, but new) and they received their second-half hats which have a little bit different design on them. Little stuff keeps the daily grind of what we do interesting. Everyone is excited to be in Daytona this weekend. The Daytona 500 was our best finish of the year so far and everyone is hoping our bad luck is over and we can run up front. We just need to avoid the inevitable big wreck and be around at the end.

Check out the pictures of the goats! I finally got a picture of the baby goat! Of course she’s not so little anymore since it’s taken me a while to get the photo taken.

-Nancy